Events
Contest : A contest is any situation where one character tries to best another. Contests are different from PvP Events; Contests are simple and only decided with one roll from each involved character. A game of cards would be a Contest. All the involved characters would roll 1d6 and add +1 for each relevant advantage (like Intelligence, Cunning or Gambler). High roll wins the game. Sneaking past another character is a Contest. The first character would add advantages like Stealth and Rogue to their roll, the second would use advantages like Perception and Cunning. The winner gets to dictate the action in the scene. In this case, if the stealthy character won, they would sneak past undetected. If they lost, they would be spotted (and that might lead to an Event). A tie always results in a neutral outcome where neither succeeds. In this example, that might result in the second character becoming suspicious, while the sneaking character remains unseen, though doesn’t achieve what they wanted. PvP Event : An Event is a dynamic situation comprised of multiple Contests. Events are won by the last character standing (and his or her allies if they’re still standing). Characters are defeated or knocked out of an Event by having two Losses. Winning a contest removes one Loss. Losing a contest adds one Loss. A tie results in no Losses. Events begin when one player character initiates some form of hostile action against another. This first character is called the Attacker and their target the Defender. The Attacker announces a plan of action and the nature of the first Contest. The Defender then has one Veto option and may deny the first proposed contest for any practical reason, but must accept the second contest. The Defender then selects an appropriate defensive response. Both parties roll. The low roller gains 1 Loss. The high roll removes 1 Loss (if they have any). In a tie, no one gains a loss. In the following round, the Attacker is the character who won the previous round. In the event of a tie, the previous Defender becomes the Attacker for the new round. They again announce an offensive action and the Defender may Veto or respond. This process continues until one character has 2 Losses. Basically, Events are won when someone is ahead by two contest wins. It’s kind of like tennis. Veto : A Defending character always has 1 Veto per round. A Veto may be used to deny the opportunity for an aggressive act to take place at all, and the Attacker must instead chose a different appropriate action. Players may always appeal to the Moderators if they believe a Veto has been used unfairly against a sensible action or if the Attacker’s second choice is impossible. Characters with an Advantage that includes the “Control Range” feature essentially have more flexibility with their Veto option and it is harder to Veto their actions. Flee : PCs who chose the Flee action have no intention to remain engaged in the Event and escape or hide at the nearest opportunity. Regardless of the outcome of the current round, a Fleeing character automatically instigates a Escape/Pursue, Hide/Seek or similar contest the following around. Other PCs may elect to let a fleeing PC go free or to follow and continue engaging. If the Fleeing PC wins the roll, then they have eluded any pursuers and they are removed from the event. If they fail to flee, they gain 1 Loss as normal. A fleeing PC without any pursuers automatically succeeds. Once this option is chosen, a PC MUST flee in the following round regardless of the outcome of the current round. The option to Flee must be announced when the Attacker proposes their first contest and before any dice are rolled. Withdraw : An Attacker PC with no Losses may elect to Withdraw instead of proposing a contest at the beginning of a new round. A PC in the event who wishes to prevent someone from Withdrawing immediately becomes the Attacker instead and proposes a new contest. Interrupt : If an Event goes into the 4th, 7th, 10th (etc) round, characters not involved in the Event may join the Event by spending a Plot Ticket. Here, a Plot Ticket allows a character to make a timely and convenient entrance in true dramatic style. Interrupting characters join the Event with 0 Losses and automatically become the first Attacker for the round. A character Interrupting an Event may themselves be interrupted by a second character! This results in a second Event taking place separately instead of either character joining the first Event if the second character desires (otherwise, both the first and second interrupting characters join the first even as normal). You must announce that your character is Interrupting an Event BEFORE any actions are announced for the 4th, 7th… round. Events with Multiple Characters: ''Events with multiple characters and even multiple sides can happen. In this case, the Attacker and all affected Defenders roll as part of a contest. The high roll takes no Losses. The low roll takes one Loss. Rolls in the middle may take a Loss depending on what side they were on. At the beginning of each new round, the highest roll overall becomes the new Attacker. The next highest roll also becomes an Attacker, unless they’ve been made the target of the first Attacker’s action… and so on until all characters in the Event are part of a Contest. Contests are resolved in the order in which they were announced AND before the next attacker in line choose their action. During the 1st round of combat, all characters on the side that initiate the first action are considered Attackers and may chose targets as they wish. Terms and Wagers : PvP Events are about characters wanting different things and competing to get their way. Often, characters will come into conflict seeking to injure or kill one another. The Terms of an event collectively refer to what characters have to lose or gain in defeat or victory respectively. At the beginning of an Event, the Attacking Player will announce what they intend to accomplish in victory. This may be the capture or injury of another character, the theft of an item, or most anything else. Often, the terms will be expressed in an AP Value (for instance, the AP value of the item you intend to steal). The Defender cannot reject these terms, but must chose to either Accept the Terms, Raise the Stakes or Flee. If they Accept the terms, they agree to incur the loss as stated by the Attacker AND chose a comparable term of their own (usually an injury or loss of equal AP value to the Attacker’s wager). If they Raise the Stakes, the defender has chosen to respond with an even greater measure of hostility, such as choosing to fight to the death to avoid capture. If the Defender Raises the Stakes, the Attacker either Accepts or Raises again. If the Defender chooses to Flee (see the Flee action) then they will be subject to the Attacker’s terms if the attacker wins, but the Defender can name no terms. A Fleeing character has effectively chosen “escape” as their only term. Terms such as “Imprisonment” have a variable AP Cost equivalence. They may be priced as high as the person placing the wager wishes. The AP Cost effects the difficulty of any related Recovery Challenges. Up to 3 AP may be wagered at a time, up to the total AP Value of the character with the lowest AP Value. Characters who have lost an event where they have wagered all of their AP are Dispatched! Victory! : Victorious characters gain 1 AP if this is their first victory for the current chapter. You can only gain 1 AP from victory per chapter. The victor also gains any material advantages that had been wagered as part of the Terms of the Event. If the victor wishes to keep advantages gained in this way, they must eventually spend the AP as per the cost of the advantages he or she wishes to keep. The victor must spend 1/3rd or more of any newly acquired AP immediately whenever they gain AP from any source until the advantages have been paid for un full. Defeat! : A defeated character adheres to the Terms and Wagers of the Event. Usually, this includes losing access to one or more advantages. Personal advantages may be temporarily lost through injury. Material advantages may be permanently lost, if the victor wishes to keep and pay for them. Advantages lost through injury naturally recover at a rate of 3 AP each time the character gains new AP from any source. Dispatched! : A character who has been Dispatched is dead, missing, or otherwise totally impaired and is removed from play for now. A Dispatched character may reenter play upon the completion of a successful Recovery Challenge undertaken by other players. ''' Example 1''''' Tybalt the Thief and Gaspard the Captain of the Guard are in the market. Tybalt’s face is on several wanted posters throughout the city, but he always goes into public disguised. Gaspard’s player wants to know if Gaspard can see through Tybalt’s disguise and recognize the notorious thief. Gaspard’s Player rolls 1d6+2 (for his two ranks in Perception) and Tybalt’s player rolls 1d6+3 (for his three ranks in Thievery). The outcome is 6 to 5, so Gaspard recognizes Tybalt. Now a PvP Event can begin. Gaspard, set on doing his duty to the city, immediately tries to arrest Tybalt. First he decides to tackle Tybalt, since the thief won’t go without a fight. Gaspard’s player describes the action and announces that a PvP Event has started. Both players now have a chance to discuss the terms or wager of the Event. They agree that, should Gaspard win the Event, Tybalt will be incapacitated and dragged off to jail. Tybalt has no interest in fighting Gaspard, only in escaping with his freedom. Tybalt chooses the Flee option; he can no longer “win” the event, only cause it to end by running away. On Round 2, regardless of the outcome of the previous round, Tybalt must do something to try and escape. For Round 1, Gaspard is the Attacker and Tybalt the Defender. The first Contest is that Gaspard tries to tackle Tybalt. Tybalt’s player has an opportunity now to Veto Gaspard’s Contest if he can think of any reason why Gaspard couldn’t attempt to tackle him. If the two characters were on opposite sides of a canal, for example, Tybalt might Veto the Contest (because Gaspard couldn’t tackle him without first leaping over the canal or first finding a bridge), but that isn’t the case. Tybalt decides to defend by grabbing a bowl of spices from a nearby shop stand and throwing it in Gaspard’s eyes. The two are close, so Melee Range advantages are appropriate for the contest. Gaspard is Strong and has two ranks in Soldier, so he rolls 1d6+3. He’s also a Duelist, but since he isn’t using a sword, so he doesn’t get a bonus from that advantage. Tybalt is a Rogue and Cunning; he rolls 1d6+2. The result is 7 against 4. Gaspard wins the Round 1 Contest and writes that he avoids the thrown spices and that Tybalt has been forced to the ground. Normally, Gaspard would chose the contest for Round 2, but since Tybalt chose to Flee before Round 1 began, Tybalt will chose. Desperate to get away, Tybalt tries to cram his knee into Gaspard’s groin! They again roll their relevant melee advantages. Tybalt wins this round, which means he has Fled successfully. Tybalt scrambles away and vanishes into the crowd while Gaspard moans in pain from the cheap shot.